Lots of folks are writing about the long-term impact of SCOTUS’s recent decision in Epic Systems, but it is also important to note that there has been immediate, short-term impact.
For example, a lead plaintiff agreed to take her sex discrimination case against a law firm to individual arbitration, abandoning her putative class action, after the Epic decision was released. A federal judge is ready to dismiss a separate class action against Epic Systems (regarding overtime pay) as a result of the new decision. And a class action against Chipotle may get sliced and diced up, with about 30% of employees being sent to individual arbitration, while 70% of the class can proceed in court (because they started working for the chain before it instituted the arbitration program). There must be dozens (hundreds?) of similar employment class actions around the country.
